Fall Buying Guide: Electrics & Hybrids

This year, we’re changing up our buying guide slightly. To reflect the evil, wicked abandonment of the sedan, we’ll be mashing together hundreds of different vehicles into three four categories: electrics and hybrids; small vehicles; family size; and work trucks.

Electrics and hybrids are self-explanatory; small vehicles can include anything from a Chevy Spark to a BMW X1 to Toyota 86; family size means it can hold at least four people and luggage comfortably, like an Audi Allroad or Chrysler Pacifica; and work trucks are anything that can, well, work, which includes the ability to pull at least 2,000 pounds, like a Ford Transit Connect, GMC Sierra HD or Honda Ridgeline.

Are these completely arbitrary and highly inconvenient categories that include very different vehicles, which no one is comparing? Yes, they are. Welcome to the magic we call Air Bag.

If you want a breakdown of every make and model, pick up a subscription to Consumer Reports. We give you something much more valuable: We tell you what you should buy, with little explanation or context.

Despite gasoline continuing to be priced like water, investments made in hybrids and electrics several years ago (when gas wasn’t cheap) are bringing uselessly efficient models to market today. They’re expensive to build and it’s difficult for them to compete, especially on the used market, as new models introduce desirable features.

USED PICK

2015-2017 Lexus CT200h ($17,000-$22,000)

If you like the Toyota Prius but don’t think it’s hideous enough, Lexus made your car. It also got somewhat worse mileage. Added was much better handling and more standard features. For a couple grand on either side of $20Gs, you can find one with under 15,000 miles. They aren’t in demand and nationally there are a ton of them, so negotiate hard and find one with all the good options—they came relatively bare bones.

NEW PICK

2019 Chevrolet Bolt ($36,000-$41,000)

Since 2015, on and off, Chevrolet has quietly been making the best and most usable plug-in hybrid on the market (a plug-in has both a battery-engine combination; and can be recharged from the wall without the engine).

For 2019 they’ve introduced their version of a Tesla Supercharger, a 240v, 7.2 kW charger (standard on the Premium trim) that fills the battery in 2.3 hours. Battery alone gives you over 50 miles of range; the 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine adds another 365.

What Volt owners really love, however, is that they are really nice inside, and really nice to drive. If you don’t want the fast charger, pick up a remaining ‘18 for under $30,000.

PERFORMANCE PICK

2019 Porsche Taycan (est. $200,000)

Still shrouded in mystery beyond an announcement that Porsche’s Mission E prototype is going to become the production Taycan, probably on sale in the early summer, this will be Porsche’s first all-electric sports car.

It will be pitched as a Tesla Model S P100D competitor, and Taycan will have front and rear motors capable of spitting out a combined 400kW, about 600hp. That will give it about a 3.5-second 0-60 which sounds great, until you realize the P100D does it in 2.5, for $75,000 less.

Still: We’re reaching the point where you see Teslas regularly, and who wants that? You’re not going to see yourself coming the other way in a Taycan.

David Traver Adolphus is a freelance automotive researcher who quit his full time job writing about old cars to pursue his lifelong dream of writing about old AND new cars. Follow him on Twitter as @proscriptus.